by Maria Spiliopoulou
DRAMA, Greece, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- Greece's political leadership and citizens enthusiastically welcomed on Wednesday the historic double victory of Greek shooter Anna Korakaki in the Rio Olympics.
The 20-year-old athlete won the gold medal in the women's 25-meter pistol on Tuesday and bronze in the 10-meter air pistol a few hours earlier becoming the first Greek athlete to win two medals in the same Olympics after the 1912 Games, when Konstantinos Tsiklitiras won gold and bronze medals in the standing long and high jump events.
In a country hit hard by austerity over the past seven years, where lack of adequate funding for athletes is making training more difficult, Korakaki's mother told Xinhua in an interview at the family's home in the city of Drama in northern Greece that the medalist has given her toughest battles outside the stadiums.
Fotini Christodoulou watched her daughter competing on television surrounded by her younger son Dionysis, 18, who is also following in the footsteps of his sister and his father Tassos Korakakis, who is also Anna's coach.
On Wednesday her home was flooded with relatives, neighbors and friends who were congratulating her for Anna's victory which was hailed by Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and all political parties.
Pavlopoulos held a telephone conversation with the athlete to congratulate her for "making Greece feeling proud. Tsipras tweeted "Your great strength and persistence led you to the top". Ruling and opposition parties stressed in press releases that Korakaki's achievement was great for a society that wants to believe in itself again and has more value when one considers the conditions under which Anna trained.
Municipal authorities in Drama knocked down the makeshift shooting range where she used to train with the pledge to install a more adequate facility.
"The toughest battles, I have said that again, that needed to be given were outside the sports courts, mainly by my husband to secure what she needed," the athlete's mother told Xinhua on Wednesday.
With support from the debt laden state crumbling in recent years, athletes and sports federations are struggling to secure aid from donors.
"There were times when difficulties were almost insuperable and believing that this way I would protect them both, I urged them several times to give up, that it does not worth their efforts. I think that they did not take my words into account for a second," Christodoulou said.
She is more than happy that they did not listen to her and they did not give up.
"I believe I felt like I was taking off. The outcome of the game exceeded all our hopes. We flirted with the idea of a medal. But winning two Olympic medals within 48 hours, including a gold one, this exceeded any expectation," she said recalling the moment Anna won her second medal.
For the future she wishes her daughter strong health first of all and to keep doing what she loves in life.
Korakaki's victory in her first participation in Olympics has boosted hopes for more medals by other athletes in the Rio Olympics after a great start.
Anna's gold medal was the first one for Greece after the 2004 Athens Games. In the 2008 Beijing Games and in the 2012 London Games Greek athletes had won silver and bronze medals.
